Skepticism

EVENTS

I have not seen or heard #lemonade

I am a sociocultural failure, I know. But I don’t have a subscription to either HBO or Tidal, so all I’ve got are tiny snippets. One thing I’ve heard more of is the strident yodeling about “Becky”, which is nicely explained on VSB. It’s telling, as well, that there is more irritation about a brief remark that is perceived as a slight against white people than several centuries of ongoing oppression of black people.

It also reminds me of something I experienced a few times when I worked at Temple University. There were a couple of occasions when the subway and trains were out of service, and I had to walk home to the northern suburbs…which meant strolling through North Philadelphia, which is a rough neighborhood, poor and neglected. I am a white professorial looking dude. I didn’t fit in. I startled a few people, I know, who were curious about me, and they’d ask. And that’s where the worst thing that happened to me in a black neighborhood occurred.

They all called me “Bob”.

Maybe it’s just a North Philly thing, but apparently the stereotypical white person is named “Bob”. I can sort of see it, I guess.

But otherwise, you know, I was unconcerned. I was walking through black communities, which are no more supportive of muggings or robberies than the white communities I was walking towards. And I could not get outraged at the trivial thing about a stereotypical name, because, as VSB explains…

There are two schools of thought on what qualifies something as racist. The first is that something is racist if the act stems from either a belief of racial superiority or a position of constructed/structural racial superiority. (Or both.) The second encompasses all unfavorable acts which might be race-based. Basically, one school of thought is right (the former) and one is wrong (the latter).

I agree, the first definition is the right one. “Becky” or “Bob” are not a danger to anyone. So why is that what so many people are concerned about?

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I read an article yesterday about how Beyonce’s Lemonade is satanic.
I haven’t heard it yet, but that pretty much sells me.
(Also the article had no good reasoning about what was so bad about Lemonade, and went on about how everything Beyonce does is marketing and nothing but (with a few stabs at ‘is it her own work, or the work of her production team?’. These are apparently terrible things.)

I was an ACORN organizer in Philly. I worked in the area near Temple in North Philly, and also in poor white neighborhoods including Fishtown. The only place I ever felt unwelcome was Fishtown.

One of our procedures was to ask people what issues they were concerned about in the neighborhood. In North Philly it was jobs, housing, health care, infrastructure. In Fishtown, it was “the niggers.” They were all on welfare, and they were taking all the jobs. Often in the same sentence.

once again I’ll shill for The Nightly Show. One on Wilmore’s team gave a scathing response to all the negative responses to #lemonade. I can’t quote any here, yet I will say it is well worth seeking. I’m sure its on the cc.com site somewhere. look it up, it won’t disappoint.

Thought I’d mention HBO Now, which lets you watch HBO content on the net without having a cable subscription to HBO (as opposed to HBO Go, which does require a cable subscription). There is a monthly fee for the service, but currently they have a 30-day free trial. I signed up over the weekend to watch Game of Thrones – which was available online at the same time it was airing on TV.

One nitpick I have is that you’re required to register on an approved device (iPhone/iPad, Android Device, or Smart TV), even if you intend to watch on your computer. If you register on your iPhone/iPad, the billing is done through your Apple account. So you need to go into iTunes and cancel the auto-renew subscription (if you don’t intend to continue the service beyond 30 days). I presume the same goes for Android devices & the Google Play Store.

Yes. Admittedly, referring to White women as “Becky” isn’t particularly nice, but it’s ultimately a reaction to a certain type of privileged young White woman who exists in a state of racial obliviousness that shifts from intentionally clueless to intentionally condescending. Basically, if Iggy Azelea doesn’t want to be a Becky, she should stop being a Becky.

I quite agree that Iggy Azelea should stop being a Becky. By now she’s become an embarrassment to vertebrates.
Also Piers Morgan has whined about how he liked the shallow, pleasing Beyoncé much better.
Won’t somebody think of white men’s amusement???!!!

Ah, I see there appears to be a bad language filter that trashed my previous comment. I’ll try again with censoring.

I was an ACORN organizer in Philly. I worked in North Philly, in the vicinity of Temple; and also in poor white neighborhoods in Fishtown and South Philly. The only place I felt unwelcome was Fishtown. One of our procedures was to ask people what issues they were concerned about in the neighborhood. In North Philly, it was housing, jobs, health care, infrastructure. In Fishtown, it was “the [censored].” They were all on welfare, and they were taking all the jobs, often in the same sentence. Since ACORN included the [censored], I was tainted with the tarbrush.

I enjoyed it, could tell I wasn’t the intended audience though! Saying that, I was surprised at complete the lack of female features or producers on the album (which people keep referring to as some sort of masterpiece of black feminism).

I’m pretty sure “racially insensitive” is being racist. This reminds me of all the hair-splitting attempts to separate “being racist” from “discriminating against people on account of race”.

It’s “being racist” in the familiar, widespread, plain-English sense of “racism” as “hostility or prejudice based on race” which the overwhelming majority of people who have ever heard the term have always understood it to mean. It’s not “racist” in the specialized, novel, term-of-art sense in which the general term “racism” is treated as synonymous with “systemic racism.” There are good arguments for this definition of racism being more useful in terms of understanding social dynamics and developing practical approaches to reduce suffering and oppression. Occasionally these arguments are even actually made, rather than the whole subject being “WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA”-ed.

Yeah PZ, Fishtown was Democratic when Frank Rizzo was mayor. Rizzo’s whole schtick was to send the police into the Black neighborhoods to break heads, or as Rizzo put it “Spacco el capo.” By the time I got there Rizzo was gone and shortly after that, Philadelphia got a black mayor. I dunno how they’re feeling nowadays.

Rightwing extremist commentators have had a field day criticizing Beyoncé. One of my favorite Beyoncé related conspiracy theories came from Alex Jones of InfoWars. Beyoncé is a CIA plot:

[…] InfoWars host and Donald Trump ally Alex Jones made waves this week when he told his fans that Beyoncé is participating in a CIA plan to spur violence and mayhem in order to give the federal government a justification for taking over local police forces.

InfoWars dubbed the plot “the Beyoncé ‘urban terrorism’ psy-op.”

Jones told his listeners that Beyoncé is a “devil-worshiping” musician who “acts like a psychopath” and whose music is “designed to absolutely ruin [children’s] lives on purpose.”

He even went so far as to plead with black people to “stop killing your kids and get them in church, whatever, take them away from Beyoncé, who wants to eat their brain with the CIA, literally.”

[…] calling the musician out for her “obnoxious and toxic mental poison in the form of song lyrics.” He also compared Beyoncé to a prostitute.

Despite chastising Beyoncé for her sexual lyrics, Huckabee seemed to have no problem performing a sexually explicit song with Ted Nugent, a musician not exactly known for his wholesomeness, on his Fox News program, “Huckabee.”

Huckabee defended himself by falsely claiming that Nugent “changed the lyrics pretty dramatically when he sang it on the stage that time.” However, anyone who watches the program can clearly see Huckabee accompanying Nugent while he sings about how he can “make the pussy purr.”

Bryan Fischer thinks Beyoncé is possessed by the devil:

[…] Bryan Fischer said that Beyoncé used “a number of Satanic symbols” in her 2013 Super Bowl performance, claiming that her “facial features changed” and “she had this look on her face — she went from being the girl next door and light and bubbly to something dark and malevolent.”

Fischer concluded that Beyoncé is possessed by the devil and that her alter ego Sasha Fierce is “a demonic spirit.”

Another theory from the right supports Fischer’s claim of demonic possession:

Kevin Swanson, the radically anti-gay pastor courted by Ted Cruz, arrived at a similar conclusion as Fischer, telling listeners to his “Generations Radio” program in 2014 that Sasha Fierce is a demonic entity.

“That’s multiple personality or that’s demon possession or that’s psychosis,” he said of Beyoncé. “People used to have to be taken off to insane asylums if they introduced other characters in their lives, these are people who are going to wind up in insane asylums, mental institutes for things like demon possession or psychosis.”

Here’s an even odder claim: Beyoncé is like a Ku Klux Klan member:

When Beyoncé performed at this year’s Super Bowl, Fox News’ favorite sheriff, David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, said that while he is someone who tries not “to overreact to things,” he was so upset by Beyoncé’s performance that he compared it to “a white band” performing “in hoods and white sheets.” –

[…] “You’re just like President Obama, Jada Pinkett Smith, Al Sharpton and so many others just can’t let America heal, keep ripping off the historical Band-Aid,” she said. “Why be a cultural leader when you can play the victim, right?”

Lahren was particularly upset that Beyoncé tried to “perpetuate the great battle of the races” when her “husband was a drug dealer.” “Talk about protecting black neighborhoods? Start at home,” she said.

And then there’s the idea that Beyoncé is the Antichrist, or she is paving the way for the Antichrist:

Sandy Rios of the American Family Association and American Family Radio […]

“It’s not only stoking the fires of racism, just stoking hatred, black hatred towards whites and towards policemen, it’s also just crass sexually. It’s like you need a bath. What is this beautiful girl doing, doing this?” she asked. […]

And this descent “into lawlessness,” Rios explained, is “a sign of the Last Days” and the coming of the “Man of Lawlessness,” or the Antichrist.

“The Man of Lawlessness will reign,” she said. “Lawlessness, the breakdown in respect and honor. And so Beyoncé, who could be such an example to women everywhere, and I don’t care black or white, conducting herself with dignity with all that God has given her, her beauty and her natural talents, instead twisting it into something that is very ugly and very profane.”

[…] One song titled “Hold Up” features her as a rage-filled maniac brandishing a baseball bat while smiling children watch. In her rampage, she smashes car windows, destroys automobiles, explodes a fire hydrant, busts business windows and obliterates a police surveillance camera. Fires erupt as she spits out expletives in vengeful glee.

[…] Our impressionable children are at stake. “Pray for Beyoncé as she spirals out of control,” he continued. “Let’s learn lessons from the demise of American Idol, Bowie and Prince.”

Back in 2014, Tomczak claimed that Beyoncé’s music would “lead naive young girls on a dangerous path that could lead some even into sex trafficking” and ultimately “abuse, abortions and abasement — sometimes death.”

[…] “You’re just like President Obama, Jada Pinkett Smith, Al Sharpton and so many others just can’t let America heal, keep ripping off the historical Band-Aid,” she said.

interesting that Beck accidentally recognized that the current state of Civil Rights is merely a “band-aid” over the Racial Divide that this country initiated and perpetuated for hundreds of year. Given Beck, however, I’m sure he thinks a band-aid is more than sufficient to heal that “paper-cut”.
—
I guess pop-stars are not allowed to express anger visually with violent dramatizations, if the popstar is female, while male pop stars are expected to do so, to provide “serious-entertainment”, aka emphasis.

So a black pop star singing about racism is “ripping off the band-aid” and not letting America heal, but Republicans disenfranchising black voters, police killing unarmed black kids, white supremacists shooting up black churches, banks refusing loans to black farmers that they would have given to whites, are what exactly?

Thanks for that round up of all the nonsense Rightwingers are spouting about Beyonce. I find it refreshing that Beyonce has moved beyond pop music to cover more serious themes in her lyrics. I remember growing up in the 80s that pop music and rap routinely addressed political and social issues. Not sure why music has moved away from talking about important matters to the point that Beyonce is considered controversial when she does so.

@20
well to be fair the people who find Beyonce becoming shockingly racist and controversial have always found pop music some what suspect especially that which is produced and popular with the young black part of the population.
they are the ones who invented the term race music.and enforced it.
There is that segment of pop music that is about nothing much always has been and sadly there will likely always be.
all their outrage has ever done is increase interest in their targets so I say pour it on old white guys i!
uncle frogy

(Also the article had no good reasoning about what was so bad about Lemonade, and went on about how everything Beyonce does is marketing and nothing but (with a few stabs at ‘is it her own work, or the work of her production team?’. These are apparently terrible things.)

I wonder*-what is the race of the writer of that article

*no, I don’t actually wonder.

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Giliell @6:

Also Piers Morgan has whined about how he liked the shallow, pleasing Beyoncé much better.

I nominate Piers as the male version of Becky.

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brett @8:

I’m pretty sure “racially insensitive” is being racist. This reminds me of all the hair-splitting attempts to separate “being racist” from “discriminating against people on account of race”.

Given that racism is defined as power plus prejudice*, and black people don’t have social, political, economic, or religious power over white people, there’s no racism involved in calling a white woman the generic name Becky. The name is meant to describe a particular kind of white woman and does not refer to all white women.

*as there have been people who have contested this in the past (and there will be some in the future), I’ll point out white people were the ones who had the power to enslave blacks, the power to create and enforce Jim Crow laws, the power to economically disenfranchise African-Americans, the power to inter Asian-Americans in camps during WWII, the power to create interstate highways that tore through predominately African-American neighborhoods, thus displacing those inhabitants. It was white people with power that destroyed Black Wall Street. White people with power strode through the country targeting African-Americans with mob violence, then torturing, lynching, and killing them (often with crowds of white people cheering them on and taking body parts as collectibles). All of these examples and more are racist not solely because of the biases and prejudices against blacks held by whites, but because these white people had the power to act on their prejudices.
Take a look at a black person expressing their disdain or contempt for a white woman by calling them Becky. Sure there’s a racial component at play there, but it’s more about the attitude of the white woman, not her being white. In addition, being called Becky brings with it no infringement of rights. No discrimination. ‘Becky’ isn’t even a symbol of dehumanization in verbal form, bc there is no systemic oppression of white people in our society.